


Just in Case

by virmillion



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, depends on how into the story you get tbh, hey emmy remember when i wrote this during guard season, if we get technical then really everyone lives, mediocre fic kicked off an 11/10 conversation, the deaths are less of actual deaths and more conceptual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-08-20 00:42:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16545509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/virmillion/pseuds/virmillion
Summary: A fail safe, for another term. Something to ensure that if the worst situation presented itself, they wouldn't be at a loss for how to function. Maybe Virgil ducking out the first time is what instigated it, but as problems continued to pop up, they came to realize that the absolute worst imaginable thing was well within the realm of possibility.





	Just in Case

Just in case Virgil disappeared again.

Just in case Patton got trapped in memories.

Just in case Roman stopped trying to have new ideas.

Just in case Logan ran out of schedules and plans.

Just in case Thomas couldn't take his own struggles anymore.

Just in case.

A fail safe, for another term. Something to ensure that if the worst situation presented itself, they wouldn't be at a loss for how to function. Maybe Virgil ducking out the first time is what instigated it, but as problems continued to pop up, they came to realize that the absolute worst imaginable thing was well within the realm of possibility.

So that's how it started. A snide remark from Roman here, one too many corrections from Logan there, and a plan came to fruition. Born of the collaboration of logic and creativity, fueled by passion, and rushed to completion by worry.

Roman, adopting some emotion from Patton, to make sure that everything Thomas did, he did with full vigor and joy. Borrowing some thought processes from Logan, to justify his outlandish ideas. Taking some nerves from Virgil to keep fantastical projects from being abandoned midway through. Sure, his head pounded constantly under the extra strain, as he underwent the transition first. It being his idea and all, of course, he should take the responsibility of suffering the longest. if everything failed, it would be Roman's fault, and he was more than prepared to deal with the consequences.

Logan fared slightly better, with his mind already wired to compartmentalize everything it could. Take some of Roman's spirit to get creative with his solutions to whatever problems Thomas might encounter. Drain some of the stress from Virgil so he could meet his deadlines. Get a little bit of Patton's enthusiasm, so he wouldn't hate every plan he produced. Logically, it's the best route of action, as he was the one to help Roman come up with the plan.

Patton was next, mostly to prove to Virgil that it would be okay, that they would come out unscathed. Partially to prove as much to himself. Admittedly, he took a little more terror from Virgil than he was supposed to, but what was the worst that could happen? He just wanted to ease Virgil's panic, and besides, he had other things to focus on. Namely, getting some inspiration and reasoning to put a purpose behind his actions. No one ever bothered to explain why he needed to be involved, but it wasn't that important—Patton knows they think he's too stupid to get it, and they're entitled to have their own opinions. He certainly isn't about to tell them any different.

"And last, but least, Virgil," Roman says, watching Patton collapse onto the couch in exhaustion. Logan, barely recovering between them, nods at Virgil. "Any particular order?"

"All at once." Virgil closes his eyes, spreading his arms to the sides and holding his breath. "Don't tell me when you start, just tell me when it's over." The last thing he sees before it starts is Patton peeking through trembling fingers, an unreadable expression lingering behind them.

It doesn't hurt, per se. It doesn't even ache, but it's strange, this business of unfamiliar feelings sprinting through him for the first time. Reasonable explanations tearing down every last fear in his head, flights of fancy for how to deal with them, and emotions, so many emotions, flooding his system and drowning out the logic and the creativity and the terror and everything. It's over as quickly as it began, with the distant sound of worried voices coming from miles away, so garbled as if they were underwater.

Virgil blinks, shudders, blinks again, taking in the concerned faces staring down at him. The lips are moving, and there are definitely words coming out, but he's far more interested in the crumpled mess of emotion on the couch. Patton reaches out a shaky hand, and it's as the appendage extends downward that Virgil realizes he's splayed on the floor. Lurching to his feet, Virgil stumbles his way to the cushion beside Patton, letting the storm of new thought processes and ideas envelope him.

"That went better than expected, in my opinion," Roman offers, all traces of pain long banished from his face. He's had time to recover, so of course he wants to start singing the praises of his genius idea.

"You might consider the state of our fellow sides before you go about making all-encompassing observations," Logan says. His eyes drift to Virgil's rapidly deteriorating consciousness before turning to Roman. "Now will you share with Thomas exactly why we did this? Given that we're a part of him, it's my understanding that he deserves to know."

Roman wave a flippant hand. "Thomas doesn't need to know anything. The same core parts of him still exist, just a little dispersed. What's that science thing you always bring up to win arguments? All that matters cannot be destroyed, and what doesn't matter can't be created?"

"Not even a little bit." Logan picks at a nonexistent speck on his tie as Patton carefully rises to join them, the latter keeping a hesitant eye on Virgil. "Matter cannot be created or destroyed, only changed into new forms."

"Or transferred, as seen here. Thank you for proving my point, which I was able to make due to your logic, which proves my point even more."

Logan drops his chin to the side, muttering to himself, "if you were so logical, maybe you'd learn how to phrase the same thing in more than one way."

While the pair bickers, with Patton as a reluctant referee, Virgil musters enough strength to sink out and into his room, wishing he could drown in the mountain of blankets on his bed. The warmth surrounds him, dragging him ever further into sleep against the white noise of arguing mere yards away.

And so it worked, for the most part. Videos continued as normal, Thomas didn't see a difference, and the sides carried on. Business as usual. Maybe there was a stray fact from a usually oblivious side, or a pessimistic comment from a positive voice, but that's not too far outside the realm of possibility. As Thomas grew and developed, so too would the sides. At least, that's what Roman told him, which should have been the first tip off—how did Logan not bluff the connection sooner?

It takes the changes in appearance for Thomas to really notice, to truly get suspicious. The hairstyles that slowly start to mimic each other, the assimilation of their clothes, the reconfiguring of their voices, even their postures started to meet in the middle, and it worried Thomas. 

"What is up everybody, by popular demand, we are back with another Q&A video!" Thomas exclaims, standing alone in his living room and putting on a bright smile. Empty is the room around him, not a sarcastic remark or outlandish idea to be seen. "Alright, first question! Can you call up the sides by what they represent?" With a wink, Thomas points to the camera. "Morality, Logic, Creativity, Anxiety! Get your beautiful behinds in here!"

Virgil appears first, in his trademark style of not being summoned upward, followed by Roman, then Logan, then Patton. Thomas allows the smallest hint of confusion to dart across his face at the mismatched order before continuing.

"Next question! How did you—"

"I'm gonna stop you right there, Tommy Turner," Roman interrupts. "We have quite a bit to be getting done behind the scenes, so unless this is of the utmost significance, I suggest you wait for a better time.

"I mean, it's not—I didn't—okay, sure. Let me know when you're all free, I guess?" Thomas watching the four sink out, Logan going last and offering him a sympathetic look. "Weird, but okay."

Back by themselves again, the sides take up their arguing once more. Four different identical voices meld into one as twin tears down twin tears down twin.

"You could've been nicer about it!"

"You could've backed me up! Do you know how much work we have to do? We haven't even set a schedule or anything!"

"Oh, naturally, and whose job might that be?"

"Last I checked, yours, Logan, but thank you ever so kindly for the verification."

"Guys, if we could just stop arguing, because I really think that's making things—"

"Shut up, Patton, no one asked you."

"Logan, there's no need to be—"

"Oh, fantastic, the voice of reason is here, and he's dropped his sense of fear for a facade of kindness! We are truly saved now, thanks to your undying splendor."

"Come on, dude."

"You come on!"

"Ever heard of a nice discussion?"

"Ever heard of someone strapping duct tape over your lips so we don't have to listen to your bullshit?"

The room falls silent, Roman's final word echoing in Patton's ears like a leaf ripped from a tree before it was dead. It hurts, and it aches, and it rings, and Patton shatters.

Virgil looks on in silent horror as Patton collapses into himself, first his lips splintering away and crackling as if they were ice on pavement. There's no fear or worry in Patton's fading eyes, only acceptance and a slight hint of regret. A forgotten apology to Virgil, perhaps, for not being there for him anymore. Maybe Patton knows what's coming, that he gave them too much, and he wants only to knows Virgil will be okay. Maybe Patton is as clueless as Logan says. Maybe Roman regrets his words, just a little bit, as Patton folds in on himself, dissipating into the air in wafts of blue and gold sand. He vanishes as a wisp, lingering only a moment on Logan's finger, on Roman's shoulder, on Virgil's cheek, and Patton is gone, because they took too much from him, and he has nothing more to give. Virgil shoots Roman a look of sickening hatred.

"Not to worry," Logan starts, eager to avoid another verbal battle with their quartet that's minus one. "This is exactly what the plan was for, remember? The just in case failsafe. We prepared for the worst, and here it is, and we're ready for it."

All emotion drops from Virgil's face, leaving a shell that knows neither fury nor hope. "I don't care about being prepared. Patton is gone. Us having a plan to replace him isn't going to bring my friend back." Leaving a stunned silence hanging between Logan and Roman, Virgil sinks out, aiming for his room and missing by a mile.

"I want answers," Thomas says, his arms crossed as he glares at Virgil. "You're the only one that never has an ulterior motive, and I deserve an explanation."

"That you do." Virgil bites at dead skin on him bottom lip, trying to figure out how to explain it to Thomas. "This is why I wanted to tell you when we first did it, but they wouldn't let me." He casts his eyes to the ceiling, ignoring the demands to drop the pronoun game from Thomas. "Basically, just in case on of us disappeared or something, they—we didn't want you to be without a core facet of your personality. So we shared a little bit." He holds his tongue from mentioning how little use that is now, as they can't recreate Patton out of the few parts of himself he offered up. Even if they could, that's not what Thomas needs to hear.

"And you didn't think to ask me before you went and messed around with everything?"

"No, we definitely thought of it. We just didn't do it. Later dude." Virgil sinks out, actually landing in his room this time and donning his noise cancelling headphones. Should he have told Thomas about Patton? He should have told Thomas about Patton. Why didn't he tell Thomas about Patton? He should have told Thomas about Patton.

But he doesn't.

It takes several weeks until Thomas finds out.

Several silent weeks, of barely contained rage and independent suffering, because Virgil wouldn't dare snap the hesitant olive branch between the other two sides. Not when he's shouldering so much of the emotion on Patton's behalf. Too much emotion. He took too much, and it's his fault Patton is gone and he couldn't protect him. Regardless of Virgil's own state, that of the air between Roman and Logan leaves much to be desired, as Patton's absence begins to weigh on everyone. The weeks of silence worked well at first, pretending everything was fine, that they didn't lose their closest friend, but the bonds of betrayal are bound to break.

"Virgil, could you, um, could you come here please? Like, now?" It's not the request that drives Virgil from his blankets so much as it is the colloquial words falling from Logan's unmistakably crisp tone. Even as their voices mellowed out with the disappearance of Patton, small quirks tend to stick around, enough that they can tell themselves apart. Virgil doesn't bother wondering whether Thomas has any fans that would be able to see the difference anymore—they haven't tried making a video since that fateful attempt with the Q&A.

"What's up?" Before the words can finish spilling from Virgil's mouth, he wishes he could yank them back, bury them in bis throat and swallow until they boil and evaporate out of existence. The look of unabashed regret is so evident on Logan's face that Virgil could swear it was twin to the one from Roman when Patton stopped existing.

"I was just—Roman couldn't think of any ideas, and I had all these drawings and songs and musicals and story ideas that we could've done and he couldn't think of anything, and he just—he went and yelled at me but he wasn't yelling because he was whispering and that just made it so much  _ worse _ and he tried to reason it out but he choked on the facts—Virgil, oh my god, he literally couldn't breathe around the facts and evidence and he just—Roman's gone and it's my fault and I'm so sorry." Logan takes off his glasses, eyes welling up in frustration, and Virgil is taken aback by how much he looks like Thomas. Not just due to being part of the guy, but in a way he knows the fans think about, how they never look like each other, instead coming off as their own individuals.

Until now.

"Okay, well, it's sort of clear what's going on, don't you think?" Virgil asks, trying to pull Logan's focus away from the major problem. Logan always did better with solving issues than he did worrying about them.

"I wish I could say I agreed, but I guess I'm just messing up everything, so no, I don't think it's clear."

"We took too much from each other. Your plan with Roman didn't prepare us for the worst, it  _ caused _ the worst. We don't need four sides anymore, because we're absorbing into each other."

Understanding gives way to horror in Logan's eyes as he puts his glasses back on. "Virgil, if you're being so logical about this, does that mean I'm next to go?"

"I don't want to answer that, because I don't think either of us will like the outcome." Virgil crosses his arms, willing Logan to work out a solution for himself before it gets any worse.

“Okay. Okay. Alright. Okay. It should be simple.” Logan begins muttering to himself, barely loud enough for Virgil to hear. The fact that anything he says is audible is likely attributed to the absence of two of the loudest possible voices in the room, but neither of the remaining sides probably wants to consider that. “We could probably bring them back, right? Another of Deceit’s tricks—but no, that wouldn’t make sense, as nobody was lying. But there’s no way they’re completely gone, since Thomas is unchanged—wait, no, because we shared traits, so Thomas shouldn’t be affected. Maybe if we just—”

“Logan?”

“Yes?”

“I think you’re dancing around the obvious answer here.” Virgil knows it’s the wrong thing to explain the situation, he  _ knows _ this, but he continues anyway, because whatever results from elaborating on the problem can’t be worse than seeing Logan so distressed. “We melded a little bit of ourselves into each other, which disrupted the very nature of what we represent. Rather than being specific and distinguished aspects of what makes up Thomas, we all became four nearly identical carbon copies of each other, which eliminated the necessity of us existing as four individual units within one more complete whole. As such, once one of us is outmatched in our original purpose by another, there’s no real reason for the lesser side to exist, accompanied by the feelings of uselessness that you and Roman forced onto Patton to begin with. Maybe if you two had stopped being such selfish and entitled jerks, we wouldn’t be dealing with this now, and my best friend wouldn’t be gone, but you never stopped, and we’re dealing with it, and he’s gone, and there’s nothing we can do about it. That’s the obvious answer, and now you’re dealing with the fallout on Roman’s behalf. Happy?”

Virgil’s shoulder, having slowly hiked up to his ears as his voice changed from a murmur to a shout, drop down, stretching out his neck on their way. He wants to apologize, to tell Logan how sorry he is, how he knows it’s not necessarily his fault alone, but there’s no time, there’s never enough time.

“Astute observations there. Excellent logic, Virgil. You’ve outdone yourself, and you even showed emotion in your reasoning, as well as came up with creative evidence for everything that’s happened. Good job.” When Logan goes, it’s not like shattering ice as in Patton’s case, floating away with a farewell to his friend. It’s not like Roman, swallowing nothing around whatever arose between the pair. It’s hardly anything, just a sudden disappearance, the complete absence of Virgil’s last companion a deafening silence that rings forever in his ears. Amidst the quiet is the distant tugging of Thomas trying to summon the sides, far more forceful than Virgil had ever felt before. The logical part of him whispers the point of Virgil shouldering the responsibility of nearly every side of Thomas, but he doesn’t want to think about that now. He doesn’t want to think about anything now.

“Okay, let’s try this Q&A video one more—Virgil? Where’s everyone else?” Thomas furrows his brow, watching Virgil appear at his usual spot by the stairs. His signature hoodie, so well-loved and remembered, is replaced by one of the many shirts for which Thomas has a penchant. “I could’ve sworn I called in all of you.”

“Well, remember how I said we made a plan behind your back? That was just in case something unthinkable happened, and we cared more about your continued safety than anything else. That meant hurting ourselves, just a little bit, to make sure that, no matter what, you would be okay.”

“And?”

“And the plan turned out to be more useful than we were expecting.”

“What does that even mean? Useful for what?”

“For when ‘just in case’ became a reality.”


End file.
